Deflated Wallabies to play Will Skelton and Jake Schatz against Pumas

NSW rookie Will Skelton and Queensland back-rower Jake Schatz will boost a tired and battered Wallabies in Argentina on Monday as they aim to put right a disappointing Rugby Championship campaign.

A shoulder injury has claimed No.8 Ben McCalman, who flew home from Cape Town on Sunday after the Wallabies 28-10 loss to South Africa at Newlands Stadium, while second-rower Rob Simmons and centre Matt Toomua are on concussion watch but will remain with the squad.

Doubt around Toomua could pave the way for Christian Lealiifano to make his Test return. The Brumbies playmaker will vie with Kurtley Beale for Toomua's No.12 jersey should he be ruled out of a return to play this week.

Beale may find himself under pressure this week after failing to make his trademark impact off the bench while the Springboks chipped away at the Wallabies' 10-5 halftime lead, and Lealiifano could present a fresh – if not Test-hardened – presence in what would be his first appearance this year.

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Skelton's recall is an unexpected opportunity for the towering Test rookie, who struggled to crack the match day 23 in the second block of home games in Australia and was dropped from the travelling squad for their two-Test tour to Cape Town and Mendoza.

Skelton was put to work in the National Rugby Championship and has been training intensively with Waratahs staff in an effort to re-gain the peak conditioning that helped establish him as a cult hero in the province's Super Rugby title-winning season this year.

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There was no definitive word out of the Wallabies camp on Simmons' availability for this weekend's Test against the Pumas.

Toomua, on the other hand, who helped establish the Wallabies' dominant first-half position at Newlands Stadium on Saturday, was assessed and found to display symptoms of concussion, meaning his return to play will be governed by strict international protocols.

It was the close one that will be remembered as an 18-point punishment at the hands of an "unstoppable" Springboks side.

While Australia slept overnight on Saturday their Wallabies came within 10 minutes of smashing a 22-year hoodoo at Newlands Stadium.

But a poor performance from the Australian bench, fatigue and a killer lack of composure allowed a resurgent South Africa to score three tries in the final eight minutes for a runaway 28-10 win.

Captain Jean de Villiers, who overcame a patchy first-half performance to score a double during that riotous period, counted it among his top 10 Test matches, while Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie admitted he felt sorry for the starting players who watched a 10-5 lead be put through the combine harvester that was the Springboks attack.

"I actually felt for the players who set the game up, I thought they did a really good job. That's probably going to get lost in the final score line unfortunately," McKenzie said.

"I was very pleased with the effort, it was outstanding in the first half. At half-time we set ourselves up.

"It was always going to be difficult. I guess we were still in it at the 70-minute mark. To let in three tries at the end was a really disappointing finish and probably an unfair reflection on the contribution the team had put in across that 70 minutes."

De Villiers said the Wallabies didn't stand a chance once the Springboks put the likes of Schalk Burger, Bismarck du Plessis and Pat Lambie on the field.

Lambie's drop goal in the 64th minute reminded the Springboks – and almost 45,000 supporters – they were at home with a job to do, and a record-high tackle count of 260 left the Wallabies with nothing in the tank in the minutes that mattered.

"We always said that if we stick to our structures in the first 60 to 70 minutes, we believe we can break them down in the last 10 [minutes]," de Villiers said.

"It came down to that and once we got that bit of momentum and the crowd got behind us we were just unstoppable at stages.

"It was probably one of the best 10 minutes that I've been involved with."